Great Italian and French Composers eBook

into the most brilliant circles of an extended period,
covering the reigns of Napoleon I., Charles X., Louis
Philippe, and Napoleon III., he yet always found time
to devote several hours a day to composition.
Auber was a small, delicate man, yet distinguished
in appearance, and noted for wit. His bons
mots were celebrated. While directing a musical
soiree when over eighty, a gentleman having
taken a white hair from his shoulder, he said laughingly,
“This hair must belong to some old fellow who
passed near me.”

A good anecdote is told a propos of an interview
of Auber with Charles X. in 1830. “Masaniello,”
a bold and revolutionary work, had just been produced,
and stirred up a powerful popular ferment. “Ah,
M. Auber,” said the King, “you have no
idea of the good your work has done me.”
“How, sire?” “All revolutions resemble
each other. To sing one is to provoke one.
What can I do to please you?” “Ah, sire!
I am not ambitious.” “I am disposed
to name you director of the court concerts. Be
sure that I shall remember you. But,” added
he, taking the artist’s arm with a cordial and
confidential air, “from this day forth you understand
me well, M. Auber, I expect you to bring out the ‘Muette’
but very seldom.” It is well known
that the Brussels riots of 1830, which resulted in
driving the Dutch out of the country, occurred immediately
after a performance of this opera, which thus acted
the part of “Lillibulero” in English political
annals. It is a striking coincidence that the
death of the author of this revolutionary inspiration,
May 13, 1871, was partly caused by the terrors of
the Paris Commune.

III.

Boieldieu and Auber are by far the most brilliant
representatives of the French school of Opera Comique.
The work of the former which shows his genius at its
best is “La Dame Blanche.” It possesses
in a remarkable degree dramatic verve, piquancy
of rhythm, and beauty of structure. Mr. Franz
Hueffer speaks of this opera as follows:

“Peculiar to Boieldieu is a certain homely sweetness
of melody which proves its kinship to that source
of all truly national music, the popular song.
The ‘Dame Blanche’ might be considered
as the artistic continuation of the chanson,
in the same sense as Weber’s ’Der Freischtitz’
has been called a dramatized Volkslied.
With regard to Boieldieu’s work, this remark
indicates at the same time a strong development of
what has been described as the ’amalgamating
force of French art and culture’; for it must
be borne in mind that the subject treated is Scotch.
The plot is a compound of two of Scott’s novels:
the ‘Monastery’ and ‘Guy Mannering.’
Julian, alias George Brown, comes to his paternal
castle unknown to himself. He hears the songs
of his childhood, which awaken old memories in him;
but he seems doomed to misery and disappointment,
for on the day of his return his hall and his broad